Greetings for 1998! I hope everybody survived 1997. As for myself, I had a fun experience to start the new year. The P1800 would backfire violently, then die, and then start OK five minutes later. Thinking that the car needed more than just a tune-up, I had a mechanic look at it. He kept the car while I went away for the Holidays. When I returned, the car was ready. The problem was traced to the distributor cap, even though there was nothing obvious from looking at it. Relieved that the problem was minor and the repair bill small, I took the car home. The next day I noticed that the brake master cylinder was leaking at the seals where the plastic reservoir attaches. F our years ago, I had the original cylinder re-sleeved. They did not, however, replace the seals. They simply applied a sealer to the rubber. I've owned the car since 1978 and these seals have never leaked. My conclusion was that the mechanic had leaned into or bumped the reservoir .The seals, being very old (and probably original) broke open. I took the cylinder off the car and removed the reservoir to make sure the plastic wasn't cracked - so far so good. I then called around to see if anybody carried the seals. Naturally, nobody had the seals and Volvo could only get them on special order. Seeing as how this car was my daily driver, and that I had been waiting for seven months for other parts I ordered from Volvo, I had no alternative but to get a new master cylinder. Now - because my car was a 1968, I needed the horizontally mounted cylinder because the vertically mounted units have been discontinued. I called IPD in Oregon and they were short on the mounting bolts for the conversion kit and it would take a few days extra. Needing the car back on the road quickly, I called Don Thibault in Massachusetts. He had cylinders and conversion kits in stock but for a higher price. I decided to buy one from him and get the two day delivery. Well - everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. I ended up with five day delivery and the bill was $24 too high. I then had to modify the conversion kit and the cylinder as follows:

1. The cylinder didn't fit into the conversion ring. I had to file down the screws attaching the ring to the fire wall.

2. The plunger arm was too short for full pedal. I had to make a new one by sawing off the head, and rounding the end, of a size 5/16 x 24 x 4 (size x thread x length) bolt.

3. After putting in the proper length plunger arm, I discovered that the plunger guide on the cylinder was too long - it was binding. I had to cut 3/8" off the plunger guide.

After everything was connected properly and functioning correctly, my first attempt at bleeding the brakes was unsuccessful. The front cylinders would not cooperate. Previous times I had bled the brakes, I didn't have the servo booster attached. Referring to my original shop manual, I found the problem. I needed to unhook the vacuum tube from the booster before bleeding. After doing this, the system bled OK and I was back in business.